Rangel: Ethics panel criticized on 2 fronts

The Texas Ethics Commission recently posted on its website that a senior state legislator had been fined $2,000 for not disclosing three vehicles her husband received as gifts came from a highway contractor.

Although the Commission’s four-page report on Rep. Linda Harper-Brown, didn’t mention the types of vehicles, two years ago the Dallas Morning News reported one was a 2010 Mercedes E550 sedan, a $56,000 car with a state official license plate the Irving Republican used as her own.

Also missing on the Commission’s report was the fact the contractor — Durable Enterprises Equipment Ltd. of Dallas — regularly dealt with the House Transportation Committee, an influential panel Harper-Brown has been a member of since 2007.

However, “my husband informs me that the use of the autos was compensation to him for work he performed in his CPA practice,” she swore in an affidavit to the Commission. “My spouse, who loves me and is concerned with my well-being, permits me to use one of the autos that he controls.

“My spouse is a CPA,” the lawmaker said regarding her husband William E. Brown III. “I have no control over my spouse’s financial activity, including his financial activity with respect to his business activities.”

The report on Harper-Brown came a week after the Sunset Advisory Commission — the joint legislative panel that periodically evaluates state agencies — heard numerous complaints about the ethics panel.

In the 20 years the Ethics Commission has existed, those types of comments have hit a nerve with legislators who complain the agency focuses too much on clerical errors or missed deadlines instead of major ethical breaches.

“Two thousand dollars for that,” one former lawmaker asked in reference to Harper-Brown’s fine. “I got nailed for clerical errors and they go easy on her on a major ethics violation? Where’s the justice?”

The $2,000 fine is a slap on the wrist considering Harper-Brown’s breach, acknowledged a current legislator with a clean record.

“The Ethics Commission needs to be more even-handed in assessing fines and focus more on serious ethics violations. Otherwise it’ll never be taken seriously,” said the lawmaker, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The Harper-Brown fine is also modest compared to what other legislators have paid for major violations.

For instance, in 2008, then-Rep. Carl Isett was fined $6,400 for paying more than $30,000 in campaign contributions to his wife Cheri for bookkeeping. The agency also ordered the Lubbock Republican to reimburse $25,538 to his campaign because state law prohibits officeholders or candidates to pay a family member for campaign or office work.

The same year, the commission fined state Rep. Rob Eissler, R-The Woodlands, $10,600 for paying his wife more than $50,000 to run his legislative office. Eissler also repaid $18,106 to his campaign for improper expenditures.

Neither Isett nor Eissler were contacted for this column. Harper-Brown’s office did not return a call for comment.

In June, we should have a better idea what may be in store for the Ethics Commission. The Sunset Commission will decide whether to recommend major reforms to the Legislature, including giving the agency more enforcement powers. So far, the Ethics Commission has agreed to changes the panel’s staff has drafted.

Critics doubt there’ll be major reforms.

“We’re concerned that this process could go backward rather than forward,” Craig McDonald of Texans for Public Justice, a group pushing for ethics reforms, told lawmakers. “The Legislature might kick this cop farther off the beat than he already is.”